


The Unexpected Visitor

by MoonRiver2220



Category: Figure Skating RPF, Olympics RPF
Genre: Angst, F/M, Figuring out their shit, Post TTYCT, Post TYCT
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-07 19:06:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16414163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonRiver2220/pseuds/MoonRiver2220
Summary: They were officially retired and that was it. She was just Tessa Virtue, ex-Olympic champion.





	The Unexpected Visitor

**Chapter 1: Finding Help**

 

Her car broke down just outside of town. Of course it did. She was pretty much in the middle of Nowhere Ontario. She picked up her cell phone to call for roadside assistance, but her cell phone was dead too. This was quickly turning into the worst trip of her life.

 

"I suppose I can walk back to the next town," she said out loud to herself. She should have brought her mom with on this trip, but no, she was attempting to be an independent 30 year old and now that had backfired on her. She sighed loudly as she collected her personal items that she had strewn about the vehicle over the last few hours, tucking them into her oversized purse and bulging suitcase. She locked the car and started walking down the road, back towards the town she had driven through about fifteen minutes ago, pulling her suitcase behind her.

 

Things could have been worse; she could have been further from town or it could have been dark outside already or the middle of winter. She was completely lost inside her own train of thoughts when someone shouted _hello_ , startling her and causing her to scream and drop her bags.

 

"I'm so sorry! I thought you saw me," the man said as he walked closer towards her with a playful grin on his face. He had been painting the short fence along side the road and popped up from behind it as she approached. He had heard the wheels of her suitcase scratching along the pavement as she walked. Not many people walked past his place, so her appearance intrigued him.

 

The woman bent down to pick up her sweater and oversized purse that she had dropped on the ground.

 

"Here, let me help you," the man said as he helped her pick up items that had scattered from her purse; a travel-sized bottle of Nivea hand cream, a tube of MAC lipstick, and a half-eaten bar of Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt. He paused and looked down as he held the items in his hands, they quickly took him back to a place that was so full of memories. Those memories were beautiful but a painful reminder of the present. He quickly shoved them towards the woman.

 

"I'm so sorry," he apologized again. She saw the sadness on his face; he couldn't hide it. "What are you doing walking out here?"

 

"My car stalled out and won't turn over," she thumbed back in the direction she had walked from. " _And_ my cell phone is dead, I forgot my charger at home. Do you have a phone I could use?" she asked hopefully.

 

"Of course!" he smiled. "My cell phone is in the house, if you want to follow me? I promise I'm not crazy or anything!" he grinned and let out a chuckle. "My name is Scott, by the way," he stuck out his hand towards the woman, hoping he wasn't coming across as a weirdo.

 

"Nice to meet you, Scott. My name is Tricia." She accepted his outstretched hand, hers was quite a bit smaller than his, and was cold against his warm one.

 

"Can I help you with your bag?" he offered. "It won't roll very well on the gravel."

 

"Uh, sure. That's kind of you, thanks." He easily picked up her heavy suitcase like it weighed nothing and carried it towards the house.

 

"So, where are you headed, Tricia?" Scott made friendly small talk as they walked up his long driveway.

 

"I'm doing some genealogy research and I'm going to be visiting local churches and graveyards in search of missing pieces on my family tree. That is if I can get a working vehicle to take me to those places."

 

"Ah, a treasure hunt! Sounds like fun!" he smiled at her. He thought she was pretty; a bit shorter than him with her Adidas running shoes on, slender but it was obvious that she worked out by the muscles that were visible in her bare legs and arms, auburn-brown hair, and bright blue-green eyes. _No freckles though_ , he noted immediately.

 

"Yeah," she smiled shyly and tucked a loose wave of hair behind her ear.

 

 _God, her smile is gorgeous,_ he thought as he set her suitcase down on his front porch. "Sorry for the mess, I'm in a permanent state of renovations here."

 

Tricia looked around as she followed him into the century-old home. He must have stripped the house down to the studs, as she could see the walls were currently being closed in with new sheets of drywall. It was about half-finished, and she could see new electrical wiring sticking out of new receptacle boxes that had yet to be connected. "Are you doing all of this work yourself?" she asked.

 

"Mostly. My dad and brothers have helped some. That's why it's taking so long. Plus I was living out of the province for almost three years, so that held things up."

 

"Yeah, that would do it, I guess. I'm sure it will look great when it's all finished though. A daily reminder of all of your hard work."

 

"Yeah, a reminder all right," he mumbled as he grabbed his cell phone from on top of a cardboard box. Out of habit he checked to see if she had texted or called him while he was outside, but nothing. He frowned at the blank screen and then handed his phone to Tricia. "Here, call whoever you need to. What kind of phone do you have? I have an iPhone charger, if that works?"

 

"Oh my gosh! Yes! I have an iPhone, you're a lifesaver, Scott!" she pulled her phone out of the back pocket of her shorts and handed it to him.

 

"I only have power out in the garage right now, but I can charge it up for you while you wait for a tow truck or whatever?"

 

"Thank you so much! I owe you big time!" she grinned as she pulled out the rental contract from her purse to look up the phone number of the car company.

 

After a heated discussion with two different managers, Tricia convinced them to bring her a new vehicle. "You're Enterprise, you're _supposed_ to pick me up," she snarked into the phone.

 

Scott chuckled at how she threw their tag line right back in their faces and got exactly what she wanted. She was so much like Tessa. Fuck it all. As much as he was trying to move on from her, it seemed to be a loosing battle. Every day he had multiple reminders of her _and_ of them, this house being the biggest. He had to finish it up and get it on the market. He had waited two months for her to figure out what she wanted and still no decision from her, despite his multiple phone calls and text messages to her. She did reply to text messages, however it was always brief and never really answered his questions. Just that she was okay and needed some more time. He had even tried reaching out to Kate and Jordan several times and they both came back with the same response every time; Tessa was unsure of where she wanted their relationship to go and needed more time. How much fucking time does she need? She went from giving him heart eyes and proclaiming her love for him to running for the hills, terrified of a future with him. He was sure he missed something, something must have happened at the end of their Newfoundland trip in May. She didn't say much on the flight home, she backed out of their lunch plans they had for the following day and he hadn't seen her since. He didn't even know where she was, although he assumed her London house or her cottage, but she either wasn't home or wouldn't answer the door when he tried visiting her. Really, there was only so much he could do, and he was kind of at his breaking point. His therapist suggested last week that it might be time for him to move forward with his life...without Tessa.

 

"Scott?" Tricia called out for the third time.

 

"Oh! Sorry, just daydreaming. All set?"

 

"Yeah, they said about an hour. I guess I'll walk into town and wait. I don't want to keep you from your work."

 

"Nonsense. You need to wait for your phone to charge up and I was going to take a break from the heat anyways. Let's go plug in your phone, I've got a fridge in the garage with cold drinks."

 

Tricia reluctantly agreed and followed him out to the garage. He was right, there was a giant red fridge, they approached it from the side and he quickly pulled it open. If she had seen the front, she may have realized he was five time Olympic medalist Scott Moir, or maybe not. She wasn't really a huge follower of figuring skating but could talk your ear off about hockey and baseball.

 

"It's beer o'clock somewhere, even though it's only a little after 2pm in Ilderton, or I've got lemonade, bottled water, and some kind of fruity concoction my, uh, _friend_ left behind. Your choice, T."

 

Freudian slip. The woman really did resemble Tessa in looks and height, and her name was similar and damn it that his heart still beat to the rhythm of her name. Tessa was constantly on his brain.

 

"Sorry, I didn't mean to throw a nickname at ya, we only just met."

 

"No worries, my family and friends call me T. I was shocked you knew that actually, but I guess it's a fairly obvious thing."

 

"How's that?"

 

"T? For Tricia? As in the first letter of my name?"

 

"Oh! Right! Yeah, obvious," he chuckled nervously. "So? What's your poison?"

 

Tricia picked one of the fruity drinks, leftover from when Tessa had brought over a six-pack one night when she was at Scott's.

 

Tessa had come over to help him choose kitchen cabinets, even though he was no where near that stage. She had been excited about the various shades of white and was trying to sell him on the idea that it would be better quality in the long term to upgrade to the painted maple cabinets. _Plus it is maple, Scott, that's very Canadian,_  Tessa had told him. Besides, if she was going to be looking at this kitchen for the rest of their lives then she figured she needed to have a say. She had minimal intentions to actually use the kitchen, but it still had to look pretty. That night they ended up attempting to have sex in a lawn chair, because that was the only furniture Scott had at his place and the only surface with minimal dust. They probably would have been better off rolling around in the grass outside, because the lawn chair did not hold up to the weight of both of them and they ended up laying on the dusty floor anyways in a fit of laughter and the broken chair found its way into the dumpster that still sat in his front yard.

 

His gaze was fixed on the dumpster containing that broken lawn chair when he heard his phone ringing in his pocket. He nearly dropped his beer as he quickly fumbled to get his phone out.

 

"Hello?" he answered hopefully. He was always hopeful it was Tessa reaching out to him. "Oh," he responded disappointedly after listening to the caller speak. "It's for you," he held his phone out to Tricia.

 

It was Enterprise calling her back to tell her their London location had some staffing issues and it would take a little longer to get the vehicle brought out to her. She told them to forget it, she would take a taxi or Uber out to them and send them the bill.

 

Again Scott snickered at just how much like Tessa this woman was. Maybe Tessa wasn't as unique as he had always believed.

 

Tricia sighed as she handed Scott back his phone. "Sorry about that, I'm not really a bitch," she apologized to him. "I just know how to work the system to get what I want."

 

Scott held up his hands. "Hey, nothing wrong with that. I admire the way you go after what you want," he said as he smiled at her.

 

"I guess I should get going," she said as she started to stand up.

 

"Sit, sit," he insisted. "Finish your drink and wait for your phone to fully charge. Unless you're in a hurry to get somewhere? I'm enjoying the company."

 

"Are you sure? I feel like I'm taking advantage of you and I—”

 

"Please, a drink and a cell phone charge up is hardly taking advantage. I was ready for a break anyways. So, tell me a bit more about your treasure hunting."

 

Scott and Tricia discussed her research which then carried over into discussing families. He thought some of the names she mentioned sounded familiar, but didn't think much of it. He learned she was from Kingston originally but currently living in Calgary as she finished up her Masters degree in English. She was back in Ontario for the next two weeks. He told her about his family and that one of his brothers lived in Calgary (small world). Figure skating didn't come up in the conversation but they did talk about hockey and baseball. She was hoping to get out to a Blue Jays game before she had to fly back west.

 

"So, what do you do? If you don't mind me asking?"

 

"I coach skating part time, but it's off season right now so I'm working on getting this project finished," he nodded his head towards his house.

 

Tricia got the strong impression there was more to his employment but she didn't press him. She felt he wasn't really wanting to talk about it.

 

"Do you skate?" Scott asked.

 

Tricia swallowed the last of her drink. "Not very well? I get out maybe once or twice in the winter...let's just say I'm clumsy but I can usually manage to stay upright," she barked out a laugh that made Scott do a double-take before smiling at her. He missed laughter, especially the big, carefree laugh of the love of his life. He was finding the similarities eerie but he was strangely drawn in towards this woman.

 

"Well, my drink is done and I'm sure my phone is too. I should make my way back to town so I can find a taxi." Tricia stood up and Scott did too. He ran his fingers through his hair.

 

"Letmedriveyou," he blurted out.

 

"Pardon me?" she didn't understand his jumbled sentence.

 

"You shouldn't walk all that way into Ilderton with your suitcase plus then you would have to wait for a ride from there into London. I have to run some errands to do in London anyways. Let me drive you. Please?"

 

Tricia looked at Scott, he seemed nice enough and gave off more of a lonely guy vibe than a serial killer vibe, so even though one part of her brain was screaming for her to say no to him, she agreed anyways. She knew her mom would have choice words for this stupid decision but she really was wasting daylight and her whole schedule for today was thrown off which meant extra work tomorrow. She helped Scott put away his paint cans and washed out the paint brushes for him while he locked up his house and garage.

 

"I really appreciate how kind you've been to me," she said as they drove through Ilderton towards London.

 

"You certainly made today interesting," he smiled at her. "Truthfully I've been a bit lonely lately, so the company was welcomed. How long are you in the area for?"

 

"Just a little over a week, I'm staying at the Park Hotel, I haven't checked in yet as it was too early when I arrived this morning...I came in on the redeye through Toronto," Tricia blushed as she caught herself. _Whoops, I maybe divulged a bit too much personal information to him._

 

"Should we swing by the hotel first then?"

 

"Uh..." Tricia's eyes went wide. _What did he mean by this? Was he looking for a booty call? Because that was definitely not going to be happening._

 

"Sorry, that probably came across wrong. I'm not looking for anything...I mean, I travel a lot and know what a pain it is to have to haul luggage around all day. Totally up to you, just let me know where you want to go. I've got time, I don't mind helping you out."

 

Tessa had always said that Scott was the kind of guy who would give you the shirt of his back without even thinking twice about it. And he very much was, he always thought of others before himself. If he could be helpful in some way, he jumped right in and expected nothing in return.

 

"Well, if you're offering, sure. I'm not overly familiar with London, so you'd probably be saving me some time."

 

"Hotel first it is!"

 

Scott parked his truck on the street and insisted on helping Tricia with her suitcase. He said he would wait in the lobby while she got herself checked-in and settled.

 

Tessa and Jordan had just exited Bertoldi's restaurant across from the Park Hotel and were walking back towards Jordan's car when Tessa froze and grabbed onto Jordan's arm.

 

"Jord," she hissed at her sister.

 

"What? You look like you've seen a ghost, T."

 

Tessa nodded to where Scott and Tricia were walking across the street and into the lobby of the hotel. Jordan watched with wide eyes before turning to Tessa.

 

"I don't know what's going on there, but are you really in a position to tell him who he can and cannot see? You've been avoiding him for two months and you won't even tell me what happened between you two."

 

Tessa sighed. "You're right, he's probably tired of waiting for me. He has needs. Maybe he's moved on."

 

Jordan stopped in front of Tessa and put her hands on her shoulders. "What the fresh hell is wrong with you? That man loves you, Tessa. Head over heels, forever until his dying breath in love with your stupid self. You've been treating him like shit. We are not leaving this spot until you tell me what is going on with you two."

 

"It's not him...it's me," Tessa sighed as she admitted the truth.

 

"That's a classic bullshit line, T. What's your deal? I thought you two would have been engaged by now."

 

Tessa went on to explain how she was taking the post-Olympic crash a little harder than she expected and she panicked. Life as she knew it was over. Their tour project wrapped up and so had their month of the Great Kitchen Party trips to Mallorca and Newfoundland. Yes, she had a few sponsor deals and was slogging through finishing her three half-credits, but still it wasn't enough. She was terrified of moving forward into the unknown, without a two or four year Olympic plan in sight. They were officially retired and that was it. She was just Tessa Virtue, ex-Olympic champion.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like Jordan should be saying to me "what the fresh hell are you doing starting another fic?" lmao. This one will be shorter. It was going to be a one-shot but yoohoo I changed my mind once I figured out where to take this gem ;)


End file.
